It was a scene few would have predicted six months ago when Strickland took office. But it's likely what many Ohioans were looking for in November when they voted to end 12 years of one-party Republican rule of state government.

"I think this does indeed hit a responsive cord," said Paul Beck, a political science professor at Ohio State University.

Beck said all sides can share the credit. Strickland didn't propose controversial budget measures, while the legislature was "willing to look beyond immediate partisan advantage."

"It's been remarkable to see."

Republican and Democratic leaders spoke glowingly about each other and the new budget during a joint news conference. The figurative and literal embracing showed just how far the leaders had come since the initial budget hearing on March 28, when tempers flared as J. Pari Sabety, Strickland's budget director, was grilled by the House Finance Committee.

But the acrimonious atmosphere of that first day did not persist.

On Wednesday, all but one lawmaker voted for the budget.

"Things could have been very different," Husted, R-Kettering, said yesterday. Legislative leaders, he added, looked at what they and Strickland agreed on "rather than doing what often happens in politics where people want to tear somebody else's ideas down, often for sport."

Husted and Senate President Bill M. Harris, R-Ashland, could have come out swinging against Strickland's proposal, but doing so would have ignored what appeared to be a strong message from voters last November.

Strickland was elected in a landslide. Husted, meanwhile, outspent House Democrats 4-to-1 and lost seven seats, giving him a much tighter majority.

It also helped that Strickland handed Husted a budget with modest spending increases and no changes to the GOP tax overhaul implemented two years ago.

Once lawmakers added money for science- and mathematics-based schools and scholarships, "There wasn't a reason to fight," Husted said.

"I think it's about the best I've ever seen government function," said Jim Petro, a moderate Republican who formerly served as state auditor, attorney general and legislator.

The Ohio Poll in May put Strickland's approval rating at a record 68 percent, with the legislature at 59 percent. Compare that to gridlocked Washington, where President Bush's approval is hovering around 30 percent, and numbers for Congress are even worse.

"There's a real recognition on the part of legislative leadership that, for them to succeed and build the trust of Ohioans, they need to be sure they're working with the executive branch," Petro said. "And if ever I've seen a governor who really wants to build consensus in a decent and respectful way, it's Gov. Strickland."

Strickland has even been inviting groups of lawmakers over to the Governor's Residence every so often for pizza, beer and a game on TV.

"Anytime you get to know people as people, it's unlikely that you're going to personalize your disagreements, as often happens in politics," Strickland said.

Sen. Kevin Coughlin, a Cuyahoga Falls Republican who wants to run statewide in 2010, interrupted yesterday's love-fest. "The biggest difference this year is that Statehouse Democrats transformed themselves from the perennial party of protest, to a party willing to work with us to put forward a budget."

Of course, Republicans usually didn't need or seek Democratic votes to pass budgets over the past 12 years. In firm control of the House, Senate and governor's office, the GOP's definition of bipartisanship was: "When we're done mixing the soup, we'll feed it to you. Eat up."

However, there is some truth to Coughlin's observations.

Democrats unanimously voted for the same school-choice programs, tax overhauls and roughly the same school-funding formula that they lambasted over the past two years.

Recent talking points sent to Democratic senators said of the GOP-created Commercial Activities Tax: "The CAT will make Ohio a state that welcomes prosperity through opportunity."

Husted couldn't agree more.

jsiegel@dispatch.com

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